Chapter MAJOON to MALABAR of M by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

where vessels from India and Sind cast anchor.”—Idrisi, in Elliot, i. 90.

c. 1200.—“Harisports here in the delightful spring … when the breeze from Malaya is fragrant from passing over the charming lavanga” (cloves).—Gita Govinda.

1270.—“Malibar is a large country of India, with many cities, in which pepper is produced.”—Kazwini, in Gildemeister, 214.

1293.—“You can sail (upon that sea) between these islands and Ormes, and (from Ormes) to those parts which are called (Minibar), is a distance of 2,000 miles, in a direction between south and south-east; then 300 miles between east and south-east from Minibar to Maabar” (see MABAR).—Letter of Fr. John of Montecorvino, in Cathay, i. 215.

1298.—“Melibar is a great kingdom lying towards the west. … There is in this kingdom a great quantity of pepper.”—Marco Polo, Bk. iii. ch. 25.

c. 1300.—“Beyond Guzerat are Kankan (see CONCAN) and Tana; beyond them the country of Malíbár, which from the boundary of Karoha to Kúlam (probably from Gheriah to Quilon) is 300 parasangs in length.”—Rashíduddín, in Elliot, i. 68.

c. 1320.—“A certain traveller states that India is divided into three parts, of which the first, which is also the most westerly, is that on the confines of Kerman and Sind, and is called Guzerat; the second Manibar, or the Land of Pepper, east of Guzerat.”—Abulfeda, in Gildemeister, 184.

c. 1322.—“And now that ye may know how pepper is got, let me tell you that it groweth in a certain empire, whereunto I came to land, the name whereof is Minibar.”—Friar Odoric, in Cathay, &c., 74.

c. 1343.—“After 3 days we arrived in the country of the Mulaibar, which is the country of Pepper. It stretches in length a distance of two months’ march along the sea- shore.”—Ibn Batuta, iv. 71.

c. 1348–49.—“We embarked on board certain junks from Lower India, which is called Minubar.”—John de’ Marignolli, in Cathay, 356.

c. 1420-30.—“… Departing thence he … arrived at a noble city called Coloen. … This province is called Melibaria, and they collect in it the ginger called by the natives colombi, pepper, brazil-wood, and the cinnamon, called canella grossa.”—Conti, corrected from Jones’s tr. in India in XVth Cent. 17–18.

c. 1442.—“The coast which includes Calicut with some neighbouring ports, and which extends as far as (Kael), a place situated opposite to the Island of Serendib … bears the general name of Melibar.”—Abdurrazzak, ibid. 19.

1459.—Fra Mauro’s great Map has Milibar.

1514.—“In the region of India called Melibar, which province begins at Goa, and extends to Cape Comedis (Comorin). …”—Letter of Giov. da Empoli, 79. It is remarkable to find this Florentine using this old form in 1514.

1516.—“And after that the Moors of Meca discovered India, and began to navigate near it, which was 610 years ago, they used to touch at this country of Malabar on account of the pepper which is found there.”—Barbosa, 102.

1553.—“We shall hereafter describe particularly the position of this city of Calecut, and of the country of Malauar in which it stands.”—Barros, Dec. I. iv. c. 6. In the following chapter he writes Malabar.

1554.—“From Diu to the Islands of Dib. Steer first S.S.E., the pole being made by five inches, side towards the land in the direction of E.S.E. and S.E. by E. till you see the mountains of Moníbár.”—The Mohit, in J. As. Soc. Ben. v. 461.

1572.—

“Esta provincia cuja porto agora
Tomado tendes, Malabar se chama:
Do culto antiguo os idolos adora,
Que cà por estas partes se derrama.”

Camões, vii. 32.

By Burton:

“This province, in whose Ports your ships have tane
refuge, the Malabar by name is known;
its ántique rite adoreth idols vain,
Idol-religion being broadest sown.”

Since De Barros Malabar occurs almost universally.

[1623.—“… Mahabar Pirates. …”—P. della Valle, Hak. Soc. i. 121.]

1877.—The form Malibar is used in a letter from Athanasius Peter III., “Patriarch of the Syrians of Antioch” to the Marquis of Salisbury, dated Cairo, July 18.

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